It was the summer of 2016 and I’d woken up to the pungent smell of garlic in a hotel room with my best friend. We were on vacation and somehow we both felt a yeast infection brewing in our lady bits – so what did we do?

What we’d learned worked best. Grabbed some garlic for our yeast infections so we could catch it in its tracks before it started to flourish. We shoved it up our hoo-haa’s and went to sleep. Yeast infections were not going to ruin this vacation. 

It might seem particularly odd that we both had yeast infections at the same time, but they are surprisingly common among women, it’s just not something we always talk about. 

My Yeast Infection Subscription

A few years ago while dealing with what felt like the millionth yeast infection of the year I started hearing about using garlic for yeast infections.

At this point, I had yeast infections (also known as vaginal candidiasis) so often that I was a regular at that awkward aisle in my local pharmacy. I spent $30/a month buying a package of diflucan. I felt like I belonged to this horrible club where the subscription brought you monthly yeast infections followed by a package of diflucan.

Before finding a natural remedy this was my go to. An oral pill for yeast infections. A generic brand of fluconazole also did the trick. 

I hated being part of this club – but I didn’t know how to get out of it. I would have preferred to spend the $30 on a nice lunch out, a few drinks or a subscription to an online fitness website. I so badly wanted to be free from chronic vaginal itchiness, burning, and discharge. 

But it would be a loooooooong time before I figured out how to manage my yeast issue(s). 

On one occasion, I even unknowingly gave my yeast infection (it must have just started) to a lover. Needless to say, I felt pretty embarrassed and was mildly upset about having to spend double on diflucan this time….

An Oral Pill for Healing Yeast Infections 

Diflucan is an oral anti-fungal pill you take that gets rid of your yeast infection in a few days. Lucky for me, a few years ago Canada started selling this pill over the counter. Unfortunately, if you live in the USA, it is available by prescription only, which means I’m sure you often find yourself dealing with those messy creams you have to stick up your hoo-haa for 7+ nights a week. 

One of the many over-the-counter yeast infection treatments that involve putting something up your va-jay-jay.

The thing about diflucan though, is it gets way worse before it gets better. In my experience, you pop the pill upon the first itch and the next day your vagina is raging, burning, and extra yeasty, but then it starts to heal quicker than if you didn’t take it. 

Discovering Garlic for Yeast Infections

Photo by Mike Kenneally from Unsplash

I got sick of paying for diflucan. At this point I had been trying for years to heal myself of these chronic yeast infections and other candida related problems. I saw many doctors and naturopaths but turned to google when the problems persisted.  

Google brought up a lot of answers…..Coconut oil for yeast infections? Didn’t work…I tried. Yogurt for yeast infections? Eww…I avoided those yeast infection creams at the pharmacy for a reason…why would I want to stick yogurt up there….wouldn’t it just fall out? Tea-tree oil for yeast infection?……I used too much and it burned even worse…..

Garlic for yeast infections? Well I was already swallowing tons of garlic because I heard it fought candida internally and I had tons at my place so I started to consider it.

But before shoving this pungent thing up my hoo-ha I did extensive googling and guess where it got me?

More confused than I started. Some people swear by it. Some doctors strongly caution against it. 

But at this point, I decided to try the garlic anyways.  I was desperate for a natural cheap solution! 

If you decide to go this route please acknowledge that I am not a doctor or health care practitioner and do so at your own risk !

Did Garlic Work For Treating my Yeast Infections?

Heck yes! It worked great. I would poke a couple of holes in a clove of garlic and then shove it up there the night I felt a yeast infection coming on. It would halt the yeast dead in its tracks. 

Sometimes if I’d caught it too late, I’d put the garlic in for two nights in a row. Or one night followed by a new one the next day.  I wrote another blog post with the nitty gritty step-by-step details of how to use garlic for this – you can read it here.  

Unlike diflucan, the garlic just stopped it instead of making it worse before it got better. 

How it works? Why it works?

To be honest,  I have no idea. But using garlic for my yeast infections saved me tons of money and stopped me from enduring many painful days of scratching, burning, itching and dealing with that gross discharge that a yeast infection conjures up. 

But as great as garlic is, it’s only a temporary fix. My goal overall was to get my body to stop getting them in the first place so I wouldn’t have to shove this tasty kitchen ingredient up my hoo-ha again. 

And I can proudly say after much trial and error I have stopped getting yeast infections – i’m 4 years in the clear!

Garlic is great temporary relief but if you want a long term fix you’re going to have to make some lifestyle changes to get your body thriving from the inside out.

You can check out this free guide to beating candida that I’ve put together to see if what worked for me could finally be the solution that works for you too!